[ad_1]
The first black hole discovered by scientists in 1964 is much more massive than previously known, according to new research. Nicknamed Cygnus X-1, the black hole that made mention of physicist Stephen Hawking’s wager during the discovery of quantum effects, is about 50 percent more massive, about 21 times the mass of our own Sun. According to new observations by scientists, the heaviest stellar black hole in the universe, observed without using gravitational waves, is almost 1.5 times heavier, revealed a new study published in the journal Science.
The newly updated mass of the gigantic celestial object has surprised astronomers who have now raised new questions about how stars that form black holes evolve. “Cygnus X-1’s updated mass measurement is a big change from an old favorite,” said Tana Joseph, an astronomer at the University of Amsterdam. Stephen Hawking had made a famous bet with physicist Kip Thorne that the Cygnus X-1 system, discovered in 1964, did not include a black hole. Later, in 1990, scientists had accepted that Cygnus X-1 contained the first known black hole in the universe.
[Astronomers observed the Cygnus X-1 system from different angles using the orbit of the Earth around the Sun to measure the perceived movement of the system against the background stars. This allowed them to refine the distance to the system and therefore the mass of the black hole. Credit: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.]
Read: ‘Congratulations to NASA’: Joe Biden greets the ‘historic’ Perseverance Rover Landing On Mars
Read: NASA Rover successfully lands on Mars; Perseverance sends home its first images
Do you love black holes as much as we do? Scientists, including some of #observatory discovered that the black hole in Cygnus X-1 is more massive than previously thought. Head over to our news page for more information! © International Center for Radio Astronomy Research #unifau pic.twitter.com/cUtJwY98so
– Dr. Karl Remedios-Observatory (@DrRemeis) February 19, 2021
7,240 light years away
New telescopic observations of the Cygnus X-1 double star system, located within the Milky Way in the constellation Cygnus, revealed that the Swan was actually located 7,240 light years away, which the previously estimated distance of 6,070 light years away from the earth. . The characteristics of the black hole are calculated based on distance, and the new calculation argues that Cygnus X-1 is considerably larger than scientists had realized, the study guessed.
This also changed the analysis of science on how giant stars gave rise to black holes. Using a parallax technique, the scientists examined Cygnus X-1 against the background. The light emitted by the black hole’s companion star helped the researchers estimate the diameter of the star, with which the scientists calculated the mass of the black hole, which turned out to be about 14.8 times the size of the sun. The discovery was made using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a giant radio telescope, in a 12-hour observation conducted on alternate days.
Read: Netizens make pranks on Matt Damon after NASA’s Perseverance Rover lands on Mars
Read: NASA’s Perseverance Rover lands on Mars; Netizens share funny memes to celebrate
(Image credit: Twitter / @ICRAC)
[ad_2]
